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Draft legislation could see banks, telcos, and social media platforms fined up to $50 million for non-compliance with the anti-scam scheme.
The federal government has rolled out the details of a new Scams Prevention Framework for a period of public consultation.
If passed, the framework will provide scam prevention legislation addressing specific industries, as well as mandatory obligations on certain sectors designated by the government.
The legislation will add to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and will give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission the power to “impose the full force of the law” against businesses that fail to comply.
To begin with, the designated sectors are banks, telecommunications providers, and a range of other search and social media platforms. Under the framework, these sectors would be required to provide internal dispute-resolution systems that are transparent and accessible, while an external dispute-resolution scheme, or EDR, would be set up for all scam-related complaints that fall under the purview of the framework.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority would operate the EDR scheme for three sectors designated today.
The framework would also establish a mandated intelligence-sharing scheme.
Failure to comply with the amended act could lead to fines of up to $50 million.
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said in a statement that the Albanese government wants to “ensure that the best protections anywhere in the world are available to people here in Australia”.
“Australians are losing too much money to scams, and while we’ve bucked the international trend where scams are doubling every year, losses are still far too much,” Minister Jones said.
“The way to address that is to put strong obligations on the key businesses within the scam’s ecosystem.”
Michelle Rowland, the Minister for Communications, said fighting scammers is a priority for the government.
“Cracking down on criminals trying to rip off hard-working Australians is a priority for this government,” Minister Rowland said.
“I look forward to our regulators and industry working together to finalise the mandatory industry codes to strengthen protections for Australian consumers.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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